Republican presidential candidates discussed the importance of reaching out to people of color during a minority-issues debate Thursday night and criticized the four leading GOP contenders for skipping it.

"I think this is a disgrace that they are not here," Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback said. "I think it's a disgrace to our country. I think it's bad for our party, and I don't think it's good for our future."

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In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody this week, Romney bristled at the accusation that his decision to skip the debate is an indication of how much — or how little — his party cares about minorities.

"Of course we care about minority voters. We're not entirely brain-dead," Romney said. "We want people in the entire country to vote for us — Hispanic voters, African-American voters — we all want them in the primary and in the general."

Romney turned the tables on the debate's sponsors, the Public Broadcasting Service and Morgan State University, saying, "You call for one in the last couple of weeks in September, which is the last part of the quarter, most of us have got things lined up."

Romney, McCain and Giuliani have skipped debates or forums sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and by the National Urban League.

He has a point ( although not about the "entirely brain-dead" part); why should the big guys go pander to people they have no chance of carrying when they could be out shaking down rich gullible white people for campaign funds?

Besides who wants to answer questions like, "Congress ordered the creation of an entry-exit system called US-VISIT back in 1996, and our government spent $1.7 billion to develop the program. In December, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) said an entry-exit system still doesn't exist and the government has abandoned plans to create it. We know that some of the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States legally on visas, and then just never departed when their visas expired. What are you going to do to make sure that visitors leave the U.S. when their time is up? And where's my motherfucking ice tea?"